Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was officially announced behind closed doors, in a private function celebrating the 25th anniversary occasion of the Metal Gear franchise. The game is running on Konami and Kojima Productions’ proprietary FOX engine.

Ground Zeroes was the first game in the Metal Gear franchise that will follow an open world structure. The game was initially under development for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 but later on was also made available on the PS4 and Xbox One. As hinted earlier [reference], Ground Zeroes also made its way on the PC platform.

Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes is a sequel to Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker which was released on the PlayStation Portable in 2010. The game is now available across five platforms.

Development:

Hideo Kojima has been teasing a new Metal Gear Solid game for the last couple of years. But the real hints were revealed during the Game Developers Conference where Konami and Kojima Productions officially started hiring for the next ‘Metal Gear Solid’ game. The artwork, as you can see below, clearly states: “Big Boss wants You!” The Konami page stated that they require ‘Project engineers for the latest Metal Gear Solid targeted for high-end consoles and PC’. [reference]

As pointed out earlier, the game was first shown in a private event in Japan and then at the Penny Arcade expo where a fifteen minute trailer was shown to the press and to the general public via various websites. [reference]

The demo was running on a development kit which closely resembled the specs of the PlayStation 3, which might indicate that it is the lead platform for Ground Zeroes. The game is being developed by Kojima Productions’ FOX engine which supports 7th as well as 8th generation consoles. Hideo Kojima has states that this game is a prequel to Metal Gear Solid 5.[reference]

Hideo Kojima has shared his open world vision for Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes. “First of all if you give somebody a mission, and say your mission is to go and rescue this person, already you create some drama there. However if you take that a step further and say give the person the power to decide how they get there, what time they arrive, what kind of path they use to sneak into the base then it creates even more drama and gives them more freedom. So it’s not so much that I’ve been aiming to create an open world game so much as I just want to give players the freedom to do things in a way that feels natural to them. Up until this point, if you had a hundred people and you made them play a game, they’d all basically arrive at the same time, take the same route, use the same equipment to get the job done. “

“But what I want to do from this point on is give people the freedom, so if you have a hundred people and you give them this mission then they’ll all come back with a hundred different stories. They may arrive at a different time, use a different route to get into the base, use different weapons and equipment. So rather than having one great, dramatic story you have a hundred. That’s really what I want to accomplish. So it’s not necessarily that I’m aiming for open world, that’s not the [be all and] end all, what I want to do is give people the freedom to create their own stories and create something that’s very personal to them. That’s what I want to accomplish,” he said at BAFTA, October 2012. [reference]

Gameplay:

Gameplay in Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes comes in the form of a third person action game with a heavy focus on stealth tactics which will see Big Boss, the games protagonist, infiltrating Camp Omega, an enemy base.

The demo showed Big Boss infiltrating a massive army camp, giving vibes of an open world structure. Being an open world game, Ground Zeroes opens up a whole array of options on how the player can progress through the game.

The demo showed swift animations when Big Boss was walking or crouching. Players will also have access to a real time map dubbed as the Droid Beta Version 1.02 which gives information to Big Boss about enemy and mission locations.

Static Day/Night cycles are also confirmed to be in the game and it will affect the time at which you arrive at your destination. Big Boss can hijack enemy vehicles and use them to his advantage and if the situation gets rough he can quickly escape by calling in a helicopter. But if enemies spot you they can bring the helicopter down. [reference]

Other features include, base building which sounds similar to what we had in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Players can develop new weapons, items and ammo and possibly recruit soldiers. [reference]

Given the scale of Camp Omega and Big Boss’s more dynamic range of motion, stealth is much quicker than in previous Metal Gear games. This lets the player quickly, accurately and effectively navigate through a large and populated base. Taking control of enemy vehicles can help in getting around quickly but is, as you would expect, considerably louder than simply jogging to your target.

Big Boss can hijack enemy vehicles and use them to his advantage and if the situation gets rough he can quickly escape by calling in a helicopter. But if enemies spot you they can bring the helicopter down. Using day and night to your advantage is an important aspect of the stealth gameplay mechanics.

Returning Characters:

The following is the list of returning characters:

Big Boss:

Big Boss returns as the protagonist for the fourth time in the Metal Gear Solid franchise. He was previously playable in: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The trailer confirms that Akio Ōtsuka will be voicing Big Boss with the English voice cast still to be confirmed.

Kazuhira Miller:

Miller does not appear in the fifteen minute demo that was stated above, but he is shown to be talking on the radio with Big Boss about capturing Paz and saving Chico. Kazuhira Miller will again be voiced Tomokazu Sugita, which was again confirmed in the trailer. The English voice cast is still to be confirmed.

Chico:

Initially there was a lot of confusion about the identity of the boy in the cage. The boy was confirmed to be Chico by Hideo Kojima’s English Translator. What role he will have in the game remains to be seen.

Paz:

Paz is being held at an interrogation camp in Cuba. She has probably leaked the Peace Walker incident information to the UN and they are apparently going do a nuclear inspection of Mother Base.

New Characters:

Nothing concrete is known about what new characters will be making their appearance in Metal Gear Soild Ground Zeroes but there was an unknown character shown in the fifteen minute trailer. His face seems to be severly burned and he is apparently leading a unit called as XOF.

The Phantom Pain:

During VGA 2012, game development company: Moby Dick Studio revealed a new game titled The Phantom Pain. It showed a character who is drastically similar to Big Boss/Solid Snake, apparently lying in a coma state. It also featured a character which was similar to Dr. Kio Marv from Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. The whole trailer seemed like some sort of a nightmare and had visions of popular Metal Gear Solid characters. The trailer had the same assets used in the Ground Zeroes trailer above. [reference]

A few weeks later Moby Dick Studio released an alternate trailer for The Phantom Pain with original background music and voice.